Thursday, May 8, 2014

Mother's Day Celebration Sale this weekend!

We're having Stash Sale for Animal Rescue, Bonus Sale on Orange-sticker merchandise and on clearance merchandise and a great sale on all in-stock kits.

Mother's Day Celebration Sale

starts today!

STASH SALE! CLEARANCE SALE! KIT SALE!

We're having a SALE for Mother's Day and this one's a little different:

1. Yes, we're having a Stash Sale, to raise money for Animal Rescue, but in addition to donations of some wonderful yarns - including a discontinued cashmere blend from Classic Elite, some tonal wool in worsted and chunky from Universal, and more - we also have an amazing selection of shop model garments donated by a former yarn shop owner from Atlanta. There are sweaters and shrugs and baby sweaters and scarves and all sorts of wonderful knitted pieces from a shop that went out of business in the last year or two.

2. In addition to the Stash Sale, we are also having a sale on our permanent markdown sale merchandise. On Tuesday night, we marked down over a hundred more skeins of great yarns, including a bunch of sock yarns - all regular orange-sticker (25% off) merchandise is 50% OFF this weekend.

And our 40% off clearance merchandise is on bonus sale as well, so ridiculously low, that I can't even tell you how low it is - you have to come in and check it out. And there are some great yarns in those bins.

So come in all this weekend, starting today, through Sunday, Mother's Day and take advantage of these great savings!

Needlearts Market Report

Teresa and I were in Indianapolis this past weekend for the annual Needlearts association Summer Trade Show. We had a fantastic time, saw lots of great new things, and have come back all energized to bring you new goodies.

Apparently this year's big new yarn base is a merino blend containing some silk and cashmere - we saw it offered by so many different yarn companies that I lost count. We've seen cashmerino blends before, from the mainstream companies, but this year, it was all brough to us by the new small independent dyers.

Another big new product this year is yarn in tonal and striping kits - mini-skeins of yarn, typically pre-packaged as a set of 5, that you can use to make baby garments and all sorts of shawls and scarves and hats and, well, anything you can imagine. And each company was doing something slightly different.

So yes, I gave in to temptation and ordered some of both - the silkcashmerino yarn, and the tonal/striping kits - in Sport weight or DK weight, depending on who offered what, from several different small yarn companies, just to try it out. We saw so many wonderful things that I can't even remember if I ordered any in worsted....

I also ordered the cutest new felted critter kits, and some new designs of yarn bowls, sari silk in bright colors like yellow or green or fuschia, new fragrances of Lavishea lotion bars (in their new packaging that they promise will not pop open in your purse or project bag), a restock of Fix-It tools, all kinds of different and wonderful project bags from several different companies, and some fun stuff - weaving sticks, zoom looms, oh, and did I mention books? Yes, we have lots of books, but we are now on auto-ship for XRX Books, and will get the new ones in as they come out, and other new books from other publishers as well. Ordered a restock of Malabrigo Rasta for fall - hopefully, it will come in on time this year.

And 2 big pieces of news on the needle front: if you love the existing Knitter's Pride Nova needles or Nova Cubics, they are being changed. The needles we currently have in stock are nickel-plated. They are being replaced with chrome-plated needles. The new needles, called Nova Platina, and Nova Cubics Platina, will come in gradually, as existing stocks of regular Novas and Nova Cubics run out. The new needles are lighter weight, and apparently have a slicker finish. The other big piece of news is that Kollage Yarns is coming out with interchangeable needles in their square needles line, and they are seriously impressive. We played with the prototypes at market, and Kollage has come up with some great innovations, some of which will also be included in their regular circular square needles. My favorite is that the needle tips swivel - they are not rigidly attached to the cables, as everyone else's needles are. Also, the cable-to- tip connection is a new one and it looks very promising for those of us who always seem to have our tips work their way loose. We will be ordering these as soon as they are available. We will also be ordering larger sized soft grip crochet hooks - they are starting to become available over the next few months.

All of these goodies will be coming in over the next 3 to 4 months so watch for them. And if you want to hear all about the show, come in and talk to Teresa - it was her first yarn trade show and she absolutely loved it.

Bunches and bunches of Classes!!

We still have openings in all of these wonderful classes, so sign up now: Click on the class name to read all the details.

This year's Classic Elite Yarns Spring pattern books are theme oriented instead of yarn oriented and they include crochet patterns as well as knitting patterns. ANY pattern from the 5 books can be created, not just the knitting ones.

The picture below shows all the wonderful prizes in the gift basket for one lucky winner, knitter or crocheter, from each participating shop.

2. Your project must use at least 3 skeins of any current Classic Elite Yarn.

3. To be eligible for the prize in our shop, you must purchase your yarn and your book from us.

4. We need to have five registered participants to be eligible for a prize basket from CEY. We don't have to have five completed projects, but only completed projects are eligible for the prize. Bonus: the first ten people to register for the KAL get 10% off on their yarn and book.

If you're interested, come in and sign up - we already have some registered participants and need just a few more to qualify with Classic Elite. (Shop staff aren't eligible, sorry...). If we get more than five registered participants who purchase their yarn and patterns, we will have a bonus gift for all of the registered participants, even those whose projects aren't done in time for the CEY prize basket, so if you're interested in making a project from one of the books, it is worth it to sign up.

5. You must register by May 20th and you must bring your project in to be photographed by staff, or send me a clear digital photograph, by July 25th, so I can get it turned in by the deadline.

6. You can knit or crochet in the shop, or you can knit or crochet at home or wherever. If you would like to organize a group to meet in the shop, we will make room for you. If you want to meet in the morning during the week before the shop opens, email and let me know. If we have a group of 5 or more, we will open early for you.

Any questions, ask the shop staff or email me at yarnexpressions@juno.com.